SECTION TEN
  POETRY PAGE TWO

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COLUMN FIFTY-FIVE, JANUARY 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)


(PHOTO BY JORGE ALVAREZ)

[From Colombia's celebrated poet, Raúl Henao of Medellin, here's another poem in Spanish, accompanied by its English translation, both from Raúl's La vida a la carta or Life a la carte.]

CAME DE ESPEJO

Tu carne de espejo ablerta a miradas como corista
fingiendo caerse de sueño
El pequeño sacristán por el que tus feligreses
pasan la lengua como por un sello postal  

Tu cuarto de sauna y baños turcos del que apenas
se sale reducido de peso
El aire distante de tu guardabosques a menos que
se atice el fuego en la hoguer 

Tu lecho del que se derrama la leche sobre el
fogón en las primeras horas de la madrugada
El enano de corte de Isabel la Católica vestido
de cuello de tortuga  

Tu pozo de sahara con gruesos labios de camello
El paje de pocos años que ocultas bajo un paraguas
empapado de lluvia  

Tu arroyo de lágrimas de cococtrilo y garganta
de soprano
El gallo que no canta antes de que niegues tres
veces a quienes te aman.  ##  

* * *

MIRROR~FLESH

Your mirror-flesh open to glances like a choir singer
pretending to drowse
The little sexton that your parishioners
lick like a postage stamp  

Your sauna and Turkish baths
one barely manages to leave weighing less
The distant air of your forest ranger
unless the coals are stirred  

Your bed from which milk spills over the bonfire
in the first hours of dawn
The dwarf from Queen Isabella's court dressed
in a turtleneck  

Your Sahara pit with thick camel's lips
The young page you conceal beneath a rain-
­soaked umbrella  

Your stream of crocodile tears and soprano's
throat
The cock that won't crow until you refuse
your lovers three times.  ##  

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